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Piracy showdown escalates

(AP) - An American captain held hostage by four
Somali pirates tried to swim for his freedom but was recaptured
Friday, and officials said the high seas hostage drama escalated as
both pirate ships and U.S. warcraft sailed to the scene.

In a separate incident off the Somali coast, one hostage and two
pirates were killed Friday when French naval forces stormed a
sailboat and freed four other hostages, including a child. Three
pirates were taken into custody.

Pirates threatened to kill their American hostage, Capt. Richard
Phillips, if the U.S. attacked them, according to a Somali who has
been in contact with the pirates who are in a lifeboat within sight
of a U.S. warship about 200 miles off the coast of Somalia.

The U.S. was bolstering its force by dispatching other warships
to the site off the Horn of Africa, where a U.S. destroyer shadowed
the lifeboat carrying Phillips. He was taken hostage in the
pirates' failed effort to hijack the cargo ship Maersk Alabama on
Wednesday.

Defense officials say the USS Boxer, flag ship for a multinational
anti-piracy task force, will be nearby soon. They spoke on
condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly
discuss sensitive ship movements.

“The pirates have summoned assistance -- skiffs and mother ships are heading towards the area from the coast.”

Nairobi-based diplomat

The Boxer resembles a small aircraft carrier. It has a crew of
more than 1,000, a mobile hospital, missile launchers and about two
dozen helicopters and attack planes.

The pirates' strategy is to link up with their colleagues, who
are holding Russian, German, Filipino and other hostages, and get
Phillips to lawless Somalia, where they could hide the hostage and
make it difficult to stage a rescue, the Somali said.

That would
give the pirates more leverage and a stronger negotiating position
to discuss a ransom. Anchoring near shore also means they could get
to land quickly if attacked.

The Somali, who helped negotiate a ransom last year to pirates
after they seized a Ukrainian ship carrying tanks, spoke on
condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

He said he has talked
with a pirate leader in Somalia who helped coordinate the failed
effort to seize the Alabama.

He said the pirate leader had been in direct contact with the
lifeboat via a satellite phone but lost contact after Phillips'
captors threw the phone -- and a two-way radio dropped to them by
the U.S. Navy -- into the ocean, fearing the Americans were somehow
using the equipment to give instructions to the captain. They acted
after Phillips' failed effort to escape.

Around midnight local time, Phillips jumped off the lifeboat and
began swimming, according to Defense Department officials speaking
on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk
about the sensitive, unfolding operations.

One of the pirates then fired an automatic weapon, the officials
said, although it was not clear if the shots were fired at Phillips
or into the air, and he returned to the lifeboat.

The USS Bainbridge, which is several hundred yards away, has
rescue helicopters and lifeboats but is keeping its distance, in
part to stay out of the pirates' range of fire.

Its sailors were able to see Phillips moving around and talking
after his return to the lifeboat, and the Defense Department
officials think he is unharmed.

Negotiations had been taking place between the pirates and the
captain of the Bainbridge, who was getting direction from FBI
hostage negotiators, the officials said.

U.S. Central Command chief Gen. David Petraeus said U.S.
warships also are headed to the area, more than 300 miles off
Somalia's Indian Ocean coast.

"We want to ensure that we have all the capability that might
be needed over the course of the coming days," he said.

President Barack Obama, who is getting regular updates on the
standoff, declined to answer questions about it Friday for a second
straight day.

Mohamed Samaw, a resident of the pirate stronghold in Eyl,
Somalia, who claims to have a "share" in a British-owned ship
hijacked Monday, said four foreign vessels held by pirates are
heading toward the lifeboat. A total of 54 hostages are on two of
the ships - citizens of China, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, the
Philippines, Tuvalu, Indonesia and Taiwan.

"The pirates have summoned assistance -- skiffs and mother ships
are heading towards the area from the coast," said a Nairobi-based
diplomat, who spoke on condition on anonymity because he is not
authorized to talk to the media.

Samaw said two ships left Eyl on Wednesday. A third sailed from
Haradhere, another pirate base in Somalia, and the fourth was a
Taiwanese fishing vessel seized Monday that was already only 30
miles from the lifeboat.

He said the ships include the German cargo ship Hansa Stavanger,
seized earlier this month. The ship's crew of 24 is made up of five
Germans, three Russians, two Ukrainians, two Filipinos and 12 from
Tuvalu.

Another man identified as a pirate by three different residents
of Haradhere also said the captured German ship had been sent.

"They had asked us for reinforcement, and we have already sent
a good number of well-equipped colleagues, who were holding a
German cargo ship," said the man, who asked that only his first
name, Badow, be used to protect him from reprisals.

"We are not intending to harm the captain, so that we hope our
colleagues would not be harmed as long as they hold him," Badow
said. "All we need, first, is a safe route to escape with the
captain, and then (negotiate) ransom later."

Jack Cloonan, a former FBI agent whose Virginia-based firm
Clayton Consultants Inc. handles hostage negotiations, told The
Associated Press that the presence of other hijacked vessels in the
area "could complicate the negotiation strategy under way."

"We know for certain that they share information. We know they
talk to each other. They're not stupid. They can be very smart,"
Cloonan said.

Phillips, 53, thwarted the takeover of the 17,000-ton
U.S.-flagged Alabama by telling his crew of about 20 to lock
themselves in a room, the crew told stateside relatives.

The crew later overpowered some of the pirates but Phillips
surrendered himself to the bandits to safeguard his men, and the
Somalis fled with him to an enclosed lifeboat, the relatives said.

Capt. James Staples, a classmate of Phillips at the
Massachusetts Maritime Academy, said he was not surprised by the
escape attempt.

Officials at Maersk Line Ltd. offices in Norfolk, Va., did not
respond to repeated messages seeking comment Friday.

The Alabama sailed away from the lifeboat Thursday, Maersk
shipping line said, and a team of armed Navy SEALs is aboard,
according to a U.S. official who asked not to be identified because
of the sensitivity of the situation.

It was sailing toward the Kenyan port of Mombasa - its original
destination - and was expected to arrive Saturday night, said
Joseph Murphy, a professor at the maritime academy whose son, Shane
Murphy, is second-in-command of the vessel.

Most of the lifeboats used by ships like the Alabama are about
28 feet long and carry water and food for 34 people for 10 days,
Joseph Murphy said.

The lifeboats are covered, and Murphy, who was
brief by the shipping company, said he suspects the pirates have
closed the ports to avoid sniper fire.

Petraeus said the other warships would arrive shortly. U.S.
officials said the guided-missile frigate USS Halyburton was among
them.

The show of force follows an increase in the number of attacks
and the first on a U.S.-flagged ship.

The vessels strengthen
surveillance of the area and may dissuade pirates from seizing
another ship, but there are not enough for a blockade in the danger
zone that sprawls across 1.1 million square miles, said a senior
U.S. defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity because
he was not authorized to discuss operational matters.

The Alabama was the sixth vessel in a week to be hit by pirates
who have extorted tens of millions of dollars in ransoms.